Wesley Corpus

Trid, Sess. 13, de Real. Praes., c. 1; A Sum of Christian Doctrine, printed 1686.) Q. How do they attempt to prove this? A. From the words of our Saviour,--“This is my body;” which, say they, clearly demonstrate that the same body which was born of the Virgin, and is now in heaven, is in the sacrament. (Catech., par. 2, c. 4, n. 26.) Q. 63. What becomes of the bread and wine after consecration? A. Upon consecration there is a conversion of the whole sub stance of the bread into the substance of Christ's body; and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of Christ’s blood; which conversion is usually called transubstantiation. (Concil. Trid ibid., c. 4; Concil. Later., 4, can. 1.) REPLY. (1.) No such change of the substance of the bread into the substance of Christ's body, can be inferred from our Saviour’s words, “This is my body;” (Matt. xxvi. 26;) for it is not said, “This is turned into my body,” but, “This is my body;” which, if it be taken literally, would rather prove the substance of the bread to be his body. Therefore Cardinal Cajetan acknowledges, it is nowhere said in the Gospel that the bread is changed into the body of Christ; but they have it from the authority of the Church. (Cajet. in Aquin., par. 3, q.75, art. 1.) (2.) It is farther evident that the words, are not to be taken in their proper sense; for it is called bread as well after con secration as before it. (1 Cor. x. 17; xi. 26-28.) So that what was called his body was also bread at the same time. (3) The mystical relation which the bread by consecration has to Christ's body is sufficient to give it the name of his body. For it is the usual way of Scripture, to call things of a sacramental nature, by the names of those things they are the figure of (Aug. Epist. 23.) So, circumcision is called the covenant. (Gen. xvii. 13.) And the killing, dressing, and eating the lamb, is called the passover. (Exodus xii. 11.) And after the same manner is the bread in the sacrament Christ’s body; that is, as circumcision was the covenant, and the lamb the passover, by signification and representation, by type and figure.